Call for Papers The Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and the International Tracing Service invite applications for an international conference designed to illustratethe broad academic research potential of the ITS collections. The conference will be held May 12-14, 2014 in Washington, D.C., at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Participants will present their papers in sessions open to the public and will also have the opportunity for discussion among the presenters on their experiences using the ITS archives.

The International Tracing Service (ITS) in Bad Arolsen, Germany, was, until November 2007, the largest closed archive in the world related to the Holocaust, forced labor, and Nazi persecution. Recently inscribed into the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Memory of the World Register, the ITS collection has opened important new potential for understanding the Holocaust and other Nazi-era crimes. Whileutilized for decades principally for tracing purposes, the documents provide opportunities for a better understanding of a broad range of topics related to persecution, incarceration, forced labor, mass murder, displacement, resettlement, and the legacies of these experiences as a result of World War II. Five years ago, in a workshop jointly organized by ITS and the Center, an international group of 15 scholars identified significant topical areas for which the ITS documents have great potential, including, but not limited to: social histories of camps and sites of forced labor spanning the entire 1933-1945 period; changing patterns of behavior, violence, and obedience to orders over time from the perspectives of perpetrators, prisoners, laborers, witnesses, and labor users; studies of prisoner categorization practices; medical practices and abuses; and studies of labor utilization in particular towns, regions, camps, or institutions.

This conference will bring together scholars who have conducted significant new and original research using ITS collections in the above and other areas. Proposals to present new research findings are welcome from scholars in all relevant academic disciplines, including advanced doctoral students and immediate post-doctoral scholars. Applicants must be affiliated with an academic and/or research institution. Applicants interested in presenting a paper should be currently researching or completing projects that involve substantial research in ITS collections. Successful applicants will be required to submit a copy of their presentation 4 weeks in advance of the conference for circulation among commentators, other panelists, and conference participants.

The conference will be conducted in English. The deadline for receipt of proposals is December 15, 2013. Participants will be selected and notified no later than January 31, 2014.

To propose a paper for this conference, please send: (1) a cover letter addressing in detail your current research in the ITS Collection; (2) your curriculum vitae; and (3) an abstract of no more than 500 words of your proposed paper to Elizabeth Anthony, Curt C. and Else Silberman ITS Scholar, Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies, U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, at eanthony@ushmm.org, and to Professor Rebecca Boehling, Director, International Tracing Service in Bad Arolsen, at directorate@its-arolsen.org . Conference organizers will provide economy-class, direct round-trip airfare from the participant’s home institution; 4 nights of lodging for the duration of the conference; and a modest stipend to help defray meals and ground transportation costs.

This conference is made possible by the generosity of the Harris Family Foundation.